Stop Medicaid expansions and defund ObamaCare

Pamela Seley is a regular contributor to The Brenner Brief. Twitter: @PamelaSeley

Mark Levin posted on Facebook back on Nov. 3, 2010, “How to defund Obamacare. You read it here first.” On Levin’s facebook posting is a link to a New England Journal of Medicine Perspective Oct. 28, 2010 article by Henry J. Aaron, Ph.D., “The Midterm Elections – High Stakes for Health Policy.” ACA will transform the U.S. health care system, and because U.S. healthcare has been known to be the best healthcare in the world, ACA will fundamentally transform America, exactly as Obama promised.

On the Obamacare starvation-diet menu:

Enroll tens of millions of people in private health insurance plans through yet-to-be-created health insurance exchanges

It will provide millions of Americans with subsidies tied to income and health insurance costs (aka expansion of the IRS)

It will greatly expand Medicaid (as we are seeing Governors proposing in other states right now)

It will set and enforce standards for private insurance (aka healthcare rationing)

It will expand comparative-effectiveness research and accelerate the application of health information technology (aka invasion of privacy)

It will create a new commission to oversee Medicare (aka death panels)

It will field experiments and pilot programs to help control spending (aka healthcare rationing and death panels)

Aaron points out the “evidence of party polarization is overwhelming” when comparing votes by both parties on the Affordable Care Act. In a table, “Votes on Major Social Legislation,” in the article not one Republican in the House and Senate voted for Obamacare. The record shows in 1935 that 77 Republicans in the House and 15 Republicans in the Senate voted for the Social Security Act. Our Republican lawmakers are making “progress” in the 21st century against the nanny state.

Levin says the relevant part is:

“Repeal of the ACA before 2013 is unlikely. Both houses of Congress would have to enact repeal legislation, which President Barack Obama would surely veto. Then, two-thirds of both houses would have to vote to override that veto. After 2012, however, repeal could occur if Republicans win the White House and both houses of Congress and stick by their pledge.”

Looks like 2013 is here and Republicans did not win the White House. The Supreme Court ruling on Jun. 28, 2012, upheld the individual insurance requirement, which was the heart of Obamacare, forcing Americans to buy health insurance whether they want it or not, or pay a tax. @NancyPelosi tweeted in response to the Supreme Court ruling: “Victory for the American people! Millions of American families and children will have certainty of health care benefits + affordable care.”

Not so fast there, Congresswoman Pelosi. Turns out the Supreme Court decision created a loophole that could leave poor Americans without coverage, while providing healthcare benefits to legal immigrants. There will be Americans too rich to qualify for Medicaid, and too poor to pay the subsidies; and those Americans will be left with no coverage. What Pelosi is also ignoring is the Supreme Court added an additional item to the Obamacare menu: states have the option they don’t have to expand Medicaid if they don’t want to.

But, everybody likes free money, don’t they? Obamacare supporters say the state should too, because the federal government, will pay 100 percent of Medicaid expansion through 2016 and then decline to 90 percent by 2020. Peter Suderman writes on reason.com, “The Difficult Policy Choices of ObamaCare Expansion,” the unspoken truth what Medicaid expansion will cost states.

“For one thing, expanding Medicaid isn’t cost free to states—even during the initial years when the federal government is paying for 100 percent of the cost of the coverage expansion. One reason is what’s known as the “woodwork effect”: Yes, the federal government will initially pay 100 percent of the cost of covering the newly eligible. But there are millions of Americans who were already eligible for Medicaid programs before ObamaCare passed—and yet weren’t enrolled. Thanks to the mandate and the enrollment push, many of those people will become covered following the expansion. And states will have to cover the tab for all of the previously eligible.”

The 14 states currently not participating in Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion are:

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Comments

Excellent column Pamela. Sara’s husband was just on the show talking about the “woodworking effect,” which no doubt, is going to happen. The states of Florida and New Jersey, both of which I have considered home, are hard pressed to find citizens that want this law. Even in New Jersey. Everyone understands that the federal government is broke, and it will only be a matter of time before there is no money for issues that people care more about such as education. It is a real shame but, prohibition was said to not be repealable as well. Once ACA is fully implemented, and people file their taxes next year, this law is toast. I just hope and prey that it doesn’t go to a single-payer system, which of course, was the Dems original intention in the first place.